Episode notes
Sleep sounds got a color chart. Brown for focus, pink for deep sleep, white for babies and open-plan offices — argued over like wine varietals. So we took the colour chart seriously enough to go read the research.
The short version: the evidence is a lot thinner than the confidence. The largest systematic review grades the quality of evidence for continuous noise improving sleep as very low, and its authors say outright that this contradicts how widely it is used. We go through what that does and does not mean for the fan you already sleep with, and the hearing caveat nobody mentions.
SOURCES:
Riedy, Smith, Rocha & Basner — Noise as a sleep aid: a systematic review, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2021
Impact of white noise on sleep quality: systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs, Sleep Medicine, 2025
Written and fact-checked by Brent Burgess. Narration uses a synthetic voice model of his own voice.
This episode is general education and is not medical advice. Sleep problems can have serious underlying causes — talk to your doctor before changing medication, supplements, or treatment.